Wichita eagle., 1887-08-16
THE SITUATION IN KENTUCKY.


i Mr.. Watterson, In his characteristic
minifying way of treating things and oc
currences that would seem to nulilatt
against the interests of bis party, says thu
result of the recent state election In Ken
lucky wherein it shows Democratic los
of about fifty per cent of the majority fo
Cleveland is q matter Of no consequence
that 1t is the result of Indifference among
Democrats, being an off year, and the
additional reason of the absence of poIitica
issues In the campaign Such excuses may
be consoling to Democrats who expected
better things of the brethren on the dark
and bloody ground, but we opine they do
not express the true solution of the matter.
1t is notorious fact that the Confederate
element has controlled the politics of the
state for twenty years and more; that not
withstanding the oft repeated assertions of
| fraternal feeling for the ex Union soldier
he has been studiously ignored in the mat
ter of parcelling out the offices-dividing
the spoils-aDd that with the
casting of his vote for the
nominees Of that party who, in a majority
of instances were ex- Confederates, the fra
ternal feeling abruptly terminated. Is 1t
surprising that these men who so long suf-
fered themselves deluded by fair promises,
never fulfilled, should at least tire of such
persistent discrimination, quit their COM
any and either abstain from voting or else
assert their manhood and independence by
voting for and with their true friends? Nor
is this all.
Another fact as notorious as that above
stated Is the statement that under Bourbon
Democratic rule the state has become well
nigh bankrupt Fifteen or twenty years
ago it was the boast of Kentuckians that
theirs was the only state In the entire sister
hood of states without debt and with a
large cash balance on hand variously stated
from kalf million to million and half
dollars. So profigate has been the waste
of the states money, however, that as far
back as three years ago the
state auditor, the financial officer
of the state, acquainted the governor
and he by message the legislature, with the
fact of deficiency of something like five
b undred thousand dollars in the state treas
ury, in other words that the state was that
far behind in its cash account, and In order
to meet the deficiency the legislature, upon
r recommendation of the auditor and govern
or passed an enabling act authorizing the
states sinking fund commissioners to nego-
late lorn in the money market and issue
bonds of the state therefor, and notwith-
IT anding the boosted increase of wealth of
the state the rate of taxation was actually
and today is fixed at the maxi
mum limit of the organic law.
Investigation into the states finantial at
fairs by legislative committee failed to
disclose any official dishonesty, but it de.
veloped some shockingly rotten and
corrupt practices under guise of laws passed
by Bourbon legislatures and approved by
governors of the same sort
But despite such exposures, and make
believe efforts of legislatures, always over
Democratic, affairs have not |
improved as was promised by the leaders,
and the taxpayers, firing of carrying a
burden that had long been irksome and
which gave no substantial evidence of |
liminution, concluded to unload, and they
lid, in peaceful, yet the most practical
way in their power-they Topped off one
lalf of the usual majority given the Bour-
BON ex- Confederates
Two years hence, unless affairs are very
adically changed, which will not occur if
he counsels of Watterson and company
prevail, one more step will be taken in the
direction of true reform and the state will
Ne placed in the hands of the Republicans
o untangle the meshes of its finances and
avs.